A secret black-ops brigade of remote controlled ubermice is tasked with removing cheese from existing domestic mousetraps without becoming ensnared.

The public, aware that their bait is being nibbled without entrapment will naturally demand better mousetraps.

The mousetrap industry will be forced to respond by reviewing their current designs.

A mouse/trap 'arms-race' will ensue, culminating in a much, much better mousetrap, a leaner mousetrap industry, and employment for thousands.
-- zen_tom, May 28 2009

is the better-mousetrap necessarily a better mousetrap?

Also: The mice can nibble holes in their balaclavas, which might make them better fighters.
-- loonquawl, May 28 2009


what's in it for the ordinary mice?
-- po, May 28 2009


[loon] hmm, you make a good point, there may be a stage where the better mouse/trap development spiral goes off into realms otherwise unavailable to regular mice - but it would be quite a way off before it came to that.

[po] they can either choose to move to mousetrap free zones or sign up for government funded retraining schemes (skills might include basic mathematics, clock based exercise, or piano tuning) while some will naturally follow more criminal paths and plan to break into the black-ops cheese storage facility in order to break out all of that confiscated cheese.
-- zen_tom, May 28 2009


Oi, it's a rat race.
-- phoenix, May 29 2009


//mouse/trap 'arms-race' //
Of course, as well as gaining us better mousetraps (intermittently), this will also produce faster, more intelligent mice...
-- neutrinos_shadow, May 29 2009


Hmm, this is all very well z_t, but how does it help to clean the gunk off the rollers in my mouse exactly?
-- DrBob, May 29 2009


1.Better mice means better cheese will have to be created.
2. Better cheese is good for me, and for the common mouse I think [po].
3. Better cheese goes well on better continuous pizza.
4. Better pizza means happier people.
5. Happier people mean more content nations.
6. More content nations equals world peace.

Hell yes, bring on the better mice then!
-- blissmiss, May 29 2009


[blissmiss], you have convinced me this is a good idea. Onward to continuous pizza and world peace ! [+]
-- batou, May 29 2009


Will he have a friend called "Penfold"?
-- Dub, May 29 2009


"squeakers of the world, you have nothing to lose but your cheese"

That was the original and it only mistakenly printed as "workers" and "chains", by that the first 10,000 had been printed and the printers couldn't be arsed to redo it.

Erm, Neil Asher rat story, the name of which I can't remember, and too idle to look up...
-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 14 2011


line wars ?
-- FlyingToaster, May 20 2015



random, halfbakery